Hello all. Im looking at building an osr2 or the sr6. What is a good, cheap printer that’s big enough to print everything. Maybe even be able to print something like the fl torso housing tempest put out recently. I found a few printers on Amazon for close to 170 (Official Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Fully Open Source with Resume Printing Function DIY 3D Printers Printing Size 8.66x8.66x9.84 inch Amazon.com) but not sure is big enough to do the job right. One I don’t have to make myself would be cool too lol. Any suggestions?
Ender 3 should be big enough for the job. The printable areas is 220x220x240 mm for the record. You can double check if that’s big enough for all the parts. I printed the twist ring assembly on my mine, and that is one of the biggest if not the biggest parts. You may still be able to print anything that is longer than 220 if its thin enough to be turned diagonally on the bed.
I own an Ender 3 V2 ($200, plus another $200 in upgrades) and two Bambu P1Ps ($599 each). I can print a SR6, t-wist mod and t-valve mod in about a day/24 hours on the Bambu. The Ender 3 would take three times as long and be lower quality. I can’t stress enough how much better the Bambu is than the Ender. It is well worth waiting until you have enough for a P1P, in my opinion.
For print settings/materials, I use PETG for most everything. 6 walls, 15% infill, gyroid. Exceptions are the upper/lower/pitcher arms - I use CF-PETG for those. I also use PLA for the t-wist gear ring that locks in the fleshlight case. PLA is a bit more rigid and I like the locking mechanism to be unyielding. Avoid textured plates for parts that spin against another part like the t-wist big gear and t-valve parts.
If you get a metric nut/bolt set on Amazon, the nuts might be slightly thicker than the slots in the STL file. My first attempt I just heated the nuts up with a soldering iron and forced them thru, but that was not an elegant solution. I resliced the file but used negative void spaces on the holes to make them slightly bigger for my nuts. I think it was like 2 mm vs 3 mm.
As a general rule, the less money you spend on the printer, the more time you’ll spend making it work correctly.
Beyond that, one limitation of the printer you’ve linked is the use of a PTFE tube going into the hot end, which limits the temperature you can safely print at, in turn limiting what materials you can use. For just PLA and PETG, that will work, but if you want materials with a higher heat resistance, such as ABS or PC, you’d be out of luck.
While comparatively expensive, I recommend Prusa kits in general. The printers are very capable and reliable. The kits are less expensive than the pre-built models, and you’ll get an understanding of how the printer works when doing the assembly. The current model is the Mk4, though Mk3 models are still very good. Looking on the used market for one of those might get you a bargain.
Prusas are great too. The MK4 can do everything the P1P can. I’m a cheapskate tho. I would not get a MK3 in 2023 though unless you get a hell of a deal on a used one. I find the Chinese knockoffs like the Sovol SV06 to be a better bargain these days, with plenty of community resources to help you out.
Wow. Thank you for the quick answers. If the printer costs more. That’s fine with me. I am currently retired and living on a small fixed income anyhow. So no matter what i get. I’ll have to save for a while lol. What’s a good price range to shoot for? Besides the printer and filament. What else do I need? Do u need a separate wash chamber and so on lol!?
If you get a resin printer yes, but I wouldn’t. You need a wash/cure station, ventilation and protective gear for resin and it’s a mess. These are my recommendations, rated on price:
Sovol SV06 (will require assembly and semi-constant tweaking) ~$230
Sovol SV07 (assembly required, less tweaking, still some required) ~ $270
Used Prusa MK3+ (will require initial tweaking, then should be good to go) between $270-$599
Bambu P1P (prints right out of the box, no tweaking unless you get a lemon. used market nonexistant right now) $599
MK4 kit (requires assembly, then prints reliably without tweaking) maybe $1050 to the US after shipping and customs. Print quality same as P1P, in my opinion
Avoid Creality!!
Thank you. That’s what I needed to know. I am currently looking into the p1p and liked the p1s because of the enclosure since this will be in a small room. I thought the stronger filaments put off a lit of smell and some harmful fumes .The ender was just the cheapest I saw with a decent print area. I needed a bare minimum jumping off point.
Thanks again for the answers. I know this isn’t a 3d printing forum. But I knew at least some of you have made one of these errr ummm… Robots before lol :-).
1 last related question lol. Is there a better forum for me to post builder related questions going forward? On the actual 3d printing and modeling side of things related to the osr2 and sr6 bots that is.
The Tempest Discord is probably a good place for that. You need to support Tempest Max on SubscribeStar (or Patreon) to get access. I believe it’s $2/month for the Discord, and $8/month for the latest hardware designs. Plenty of people in there to offer 3D printing advice specifically related to the OSR projects.
Yes definitely! I knew about the discord but haven’t found the pattern yet. I never heard of subscribestar tho. I was planning on joining the patreon when I had the printer here and ready to start building. But yea. It’s probably a good idea to start before that stuff gets here lol
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